


The Rumors Of My Death

by verboseDescription



Category: Wolf 359 (Radio)
Genre: death mention, everyone thinks the hephaestus crew is dead which is sad, its sad and they think about it and get sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 10:22:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10897353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verboseDescription/pseuds/verboseDescription
Summary: It's an odd thing, you know. To know that even though your heart's still beating, and that your blood's still flowing, there's people out there mourning your death.





	1. Commander Calling Home

When Dominik Koudelka gets the news his wife is dead, where is he?

Is he finishing up work at his office, only to be interrupted by a hesitant secretary, unsure how to break the news?

She hopes he doesn’t find it out from the news. She hopes Goddard has at _least_ enough decency that he doesn’t find out from the radio he listens to on his way to work. She hopes he doesn’t have to stop his car on the side of the road because he can’t see through the tears in his eyes. She hopes he doesn’t have to call up work, voice cracking, and tell his coworkers that he’s not going to be able to come in to work. She hopes he doesn’t sit there, clutching the steering wheel like a lifeline, sobbing about how the woman he loves, the woman he _married_ , is dead.

She hopes he knows she isn’t dead. She hopes his coworkers let him take some time to mourn, anyways.

She hopes he’s coping.

 

But, no, she knows her husband, doesn’t she? He wouldn’t get sad.

He’d get angry.

He’d yell at Goddard, yell that they were supposed to bring her home _safe._ He’d demand to know how such a powerful company would make such a bad ship.

“These things happen, Sir,” The representative from Goddard would say. Would it be Rachel? Probably. It was always Rachel. “We can’t account for every variable.”

“Fuck you,” Dominik would say, because she’s right. Space is always an unknown variable. Death is always a possibility.

Of course, death is a possibility anywhere. He had known that. Being military had given them both a fairly good idea of how fragile humans were. That didn’t mean either had to like the idea of being stuck without the other, regardless of circumstances.

 

If she’s lucky (unlucky?), he’ll accept what they tell him. He won’t look into the crash, even though he doesn’t truly believe that she could die in such a chance accident. All those years of looking up into space, and for what? Her body doesn’t even have a chance to leave Earth’s atmosphere. Or at least, as far as he knows.

If she’s unlucky (lucky?), he’ll end his call to Rachel with a “Respectfully speaking, Ma’am, but fuck you,” and start looking into the Hephaestus. Would he hear about Lovelace? Would he be able to find out about her crew? Would he be able to realize there was a pattern?

Once was a tragedy. Twice was unfortunate. But it was only the third time around that you could begin to call it a trend.

She wants him to know the truth, but she knows it might be better for him if he doesn’t. He doesn’t have enough of the facts, after all. And without facts, he could very well just end up sounding like a message on a conspiracy board.

Heaven knows she’s already paranoid enough for the both of them.

 

So, she’s dead.

At least as far as he knows.

And then she goes and _calls_ him.

Shit, she doesn’t know whether to hope the secretary never tells him about her call, or to hope that for some inexplicable reason, the secretary feels the need to tell Dominik that some woman called claiming to be his dead wife.

There’s no need to give him false hope.

After all, Minkowski doesn’t know if she’ll be able to say she’s alive for long. Maybe Dominik just got the news a bit too soon.

 

You always have to be careful with sending messages in space; you never know if they’ll arrive on time.


	2. Communications Officer Absent Father

So, here’s how I think it goes down:

Kate the some news that her shitty ex--that's me--is dead.

They call her up and tell her, “Miss, we need to talk about Doug Eifel,” so she hangs up and gets on with her life. I mean, what could they say that matters to her?

She doesn’t care about me, after all. She’s—

No, okay, Kate’s not heartless. She’s… she’s a good person, even if she wasn’t always to me.

So, she gets a call from Goddard Futuristics. They tell her I’m dead. She says, “Okay, cool, whatever,” and starts thinking about her daughter.

Is it better if Anne knows right away? She already knew she wasn’t going to be able to see her dad for _years_. She had known that for a while. Would it be better for her to know that it was a permanent situation? That her Daddy isn’t just gone, but that he’s _gone._

It’s not like she’d know if Kate waited a few years. Or a decade or two.

But Kate wouldn’t be that cruel. She wouldn’t let Anne keep hoping to see me again, only to break the news just days before I would have been out parole. She would have definitely mentioned me going into space, wouldn’t she? Kids love space, after all.

But if she never said anything till it was too late to lie, Kate would have to apologize, say she never meant for it to go this far, but it had been easier this way.

Easier for _her_ at least.

And Anne… Well, who knows what Anne would do? She’s be an adult by that time, and I’d be nothing more than a story and a few vague memories.

I might even be dead for real, or back on Earth ( _ha!_ ), but both of those futures aren’t really something I can think about.

And, shit, speaking of Anne, who knows if Cutter was even telling the truth about that? Her having a college fund, having her medical bills paid off… Well, it wasn’t like anyone was going to hold him to his promise.

Fuck.

Figures the one good thing I could do for my daughter might not even happen. I was better off in jail.

 

So. Kate gets a call. Or she sees it on TV, whatever.

The point is, I’m dead.

I survived the Decima virus, survived the evil plant monster hanging out in our vents, hell, I survived _space!_

I got through _everything._

But Anne doesn’t know any of that.

And unless I did something right now, she never will.


	3. Captain Don't Think About It

Don’t think about Eifel and Minkowski.

Don’t think about how scared you had been, when you had found out what they just did.

Don’t think about how you tried to call your parents, and they hadn’t believed it was you, no matter how much you begged and pleaded.

Don’t think about how after all that, all they said was, “I’m sorry, but our daughter has been dead for years.”

Don’t think about how the line went dead, leaving you in tears, up in space, thinking that all of your friends and everyone who had ever served under you, who you had ever promised to keep in touch with, everyone who had _friended you on facebook_ , and how all of them thought you were dead.

Don’t think about how you’re still stuck on the same ship, watching the same thing happen all over again.

Don’t think about how you’re working with the scientist who killed off your previous crew, how you’d no doubt have to kill someone yourself if you wanted to get out of this alive.

Don’t think about the past.

Make a plan.

Be a big girl.

Don’t die.

 

(Because even if everyone you knew had already attended your funeral and laid you to rest, you refuse to be anything but a vengeful spirit, ready to burn Command to the ground.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lovelace's chapter is short, and vengeful, just like her  
> hilbert doesnt get a chapter b/c hes the reason theyre in this mess in the first place

**Author's Note:**

> just wanted to write a lil something about the characters coping w/ the fact that there's ppl who love them and think they're like, super dead
> 
> you can find me on tumblr @ofdreamsanddoodles if you want


End file.
